What Does it Mean to be His Bride?

Before we discuss the churches of Revelation, the Lord has asked me to show you what it means to be the Bride of Christ, since the Church is the Bride. When Jesus refers to us as His Bride, it is more than a title, it is how He feels about you. If you were engaged to be married to the person of your choosing, how would you feel about them? Here is how the Lord revealed His feelings to me:

I was listening to a waltz-like tune (not sold in stores) that says, “You’re my one desire, you’re my one thirst, more than anything, I seek You first…” As I raised my hands and closed my eyes I saw myself dancing with the Lord, whose features were indistinct, but I knew instantly who it was, nonetheless. My right hand dropped slightly while my left came down in front of my stomach, mimicking the position in the vision. It seemed natural for my feet to follow the path the Lord led me on as we waltzed together.

Towards the end of the song, a thought that wasn’t mine entered my mind, “This is our song.”

Mulling over those words, I finally replied, “Lord, this song is about how much I need You. Why is it our song?”

He said, “Before you knew me, this is how much I wanted you.” Emotions came along with the words. I felt a longing that resembles a first teenage crush; every time you enter a room you scan the crowd, hoping to get a glimpse of them. Upon spotting them, you hold your breath. Perhaps they’ll look your way and you’ll connect with a smile.

The realness of these intense feelings was too much, and I was completely undone. I collapsed, putting my head on the chair in front of me.

This is how much the Lord loves you. He wants to visit with you face-to-face in the Secret Place. This is a private place in the spiritual realm that is created just for you to visit with God as Abba Father, Jesus as your Beloved, and Holy Spirit as your best friend. There are many scriptures to verify that this is God’s will: these scriptures are given in the Secret Place Course in the CoH Academy and the free book “Roadmap to Heaven” (Agape-CF.org/books).

This past week, in my visit with the Lord, He revealed one of the most common reasons His Bride is not meeting with Him in these face-to-face visits. Of course, He did this by revealing the issue in my own life so that the Bride could overcome this obstacle.

Soul Wounds

More than a year ago Jesus asked me to spend time worshipping and focusing on Him each day. Most days He would appear in a vision to teach me something. During these precious times, the Lord has revealed so much about Heaven and His great love for us, you would think that I would confidently run to visit Him without pause or doubt. That was true for several months, then for no reason I could name, I would lose confidence and thoughts would plague me such as, “He is the King of kings, like is He just waiting for you to come in,” or simply, “does He really want to see me every day?”

In the middle of this round of doubt, I had a dream with the same theme I’ve had many times over the years. I was back in high school (secondary school) and there was a boy who was soundly rejecting me. Emotional pain wracked my body so much that my heart pounded while I slept and woke me up as tears slid down my cheeks.

“Why does this keep happening?” I thought, “I’m happily married, my husband loves me. More importantly, I know Jesus loves me because I felt His love.”

The quiet voice of the Holy Spirit interrupted my thoughts, “It is a generational curse.” He brought a memory into my mind: I had spoken to a family member a few days before whom I knew the Lord was freeing from a spirit of rejection.

“A spirit of rejection?” I questioned. Instantly, a particularly painful childhood memory came to my mind. I thought I’d gotten over that years ago, however, looking back at the memory, I knew there was a soul wound that was allowing the enemy to successfully attack me over and over again.

When we are in situations that are physically or emotionally painful, a wound can develop in our soul (mind, will, and emotions). This type of wound is sometimes referred to as a stronghold because it allows demons easy access to our emotions and mind where they push our buttons causing us to act and think in ways we don't want to. In my case, I had every desire to meet with the Lord, but something inside kept insisting I wasn’t good enough to deserve it.

Praise God that Jesus is the Healer of the broken-hearted.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me... because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted... (Luke 4:18, Isaiah 61:1 KJV)

There are actually two separate words that are translated “brokenhearted:”

• shabar (shä - v - air) - it is more than broken, it is shattered
• leb (lāve) - in this case, hearted is referring to our soul; mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, inclination, resolution, determination, emotions, and passions

The Lord healed or bound up the shattered souls of those who sought Him. Soul ties and trauma can harm our souls. These give the enemy easy access to us where we can be manipulated or distracted by him. Notice that our thinking, memory, resolution (will) and emotions can be affected along with our ability to retain knowledge. Our Lord will step in and heal your soul if you are seeking Him.

After doing a quick prayer for soul healing, the difference was remarkable! My heart soared with love and I was able to enter His presence and see Him face-to-face so much easier. The first matter Jesus addressed with me was that His Bride needed to be healed so they can receive all that He has for them. There are too many types of wounds to list them all, but often they will result in some sort of fear of man. 

• We are afraid we are not good enough
• for our spouse, our kids, or anyone we interact with frequently
• for God, Jesus or Holy Spirit
• some will hide in video games where we can easily succeed in goals
• We are afraid of rejection
• we make excuses not to approach people
• we reject others before we can be rejected
• we cannot rest in Jesus because we feel God will reject us
• some will hide in things that cannot reject us - TV, books, magazines
• We are afraid of disappointing people
• we overcommit ourselves - over extend ourselves
• hide our failure
• by talking about what we do well
• changing the topic
• claiming others are worse
• some will avoid social situations

Not all the items in any one type of fear-based behavior will apply to you. Often you may not feel this way all the time, as with me, it may come and go. Even if it happens rarely, a wounded soul may keep you from experiencing the fullness of Jesus’ love for you. It can cause you to doubt how much He loves you and the wonderful blessings He has just for you. There are clues which may indicate a wounded soul:

• Recurring themes in dreams that have a big emotional impact when they occur.
• Repeated behavior that you know is wrong and want to stop, but you cannot seem to quit doing.

Any type of sinful behavior that you genuinely want to stop, may have a soul wound as a trigger point that the enemy can pull to distract and derail you from your destiny. Jesus died so that we can be free of sin:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18 ESV)

We are no longer bound by sin: this means we cannot be enslaved to it. We can stop sinning because our Lord has paid the price for us to be set free through the shedding of His blood. The Holy Spirit is your Counselor, He can help you find out if something is keeping you bound in sin. The Spirit of the Lord is all powerful, but we must choose who has power in our soul.

Freeing Your Mind

After I was set free, the Holy Spirit revealed that He could be blocked from helping us receive healing. It was a situation with my daughter that brought this to light:

For weeks my daughter had been seldom seen, which is totally unlike her. I told her about the freedom I had recently found. I asked, “Is it possible that something like this is the reason you’ve been in your room so much?”

“Something definitely feels off,” she shrugged.

When I asked the Holy Spirit to reveal what was causing her to hide in her room, she said, “All I get are glitching scenes with lines through them, I can’t make out what I’m seeing.” When I asked the Holy Spirit to clear it up, she got a headache.

My daughter has a keen gift of discernment. When exposed to defiled objects, it often manifests as a headache. This was a message from our Guide: a spirit was blocking her mind. Leaning on Him for wisdom, He revealed that my daughter had been turning to worldly entertainment and an active imagination (internal daydreams) as a coping mechanism for a situation she didn’t want to deal with. The actions were not sinful, but responding to the prompting of another spirit gave that spirit a place to operate in her mind.

Know you not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey… (Romans 6:16 AKJV)

The action doesn’t have to be a sin. It could be something that is consuming your time or outside of God’s will for your life. If you give in to a demonic spirit over and over, then that spirit will gain influence over you. Participating in sin increases the negative spiritual influence up to another level because sin separates us from God:

… but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. (Isaiah 59:2 ESV)

Intentionally or consistently breaking the Ten Commandments will cause us to lose connection with God. Paul spoke about this to fellow Israelites:

For if we go on deliberately and willingly sinning after once acquiring the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice left to atone for [our] sins [no further offering to which to look forward]. (Hebrews 10:26 AMPC)

They intended to make their yearly sacrifice for sins, that would keep them in good relationship with God. This is not so. Intentional sin will separate us from God and keep us from hearing the Holy Spirit. Now we know that if we follow actions that are not sinful, but prompted by another spirit, it may give a demon a way to hinder us. When we submit to a spirit it begins to have power over us. The first stronghold is often in our thoughts and our mind. In my daughter’s case, to remove the blockage she had to take several steps:

1. Confess that she had listened to another spirit by using worldly actions as comfort instead of seeking God to deal with it
• State that she has no desire to follow any spirit but Holy Spirit
2. Confess that her ancestors were also guilty of this
3. Repent (turn from) listening to any other spirit and using these activities as comfort
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help her identify when a spirit is influencing her
4. Plead the blood of Jesus over these sins
5. Thank Jesus for contending for her in the CoH, asking Him to remove any cases where the blood had blotted out the sins
6. Renounce the spirit
7. Ask Jesus to cleanse her mind and soul with His blood

These are the basic steps to removing a spiritual influence. If you have been knowingly committing a sin, such as living together outside of marriage, drugs, or getting drunk, etc., then you will need to follow the same steps to remove spiritual blockages. Please research the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5:6-21) to refresh your memory about what God expects of His children. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if they apply to your life.

When you are being influenced, it can be hard to spot. One of the jobs of the demons assigned to us is to keep us from being productive for the Kingdom of Heaven. Keeping this in mind will help you spot their influence as you look for patterns in your life. A few questions to ponder:

• Is there something that you “can’t do without?”
• You need it to comfort you
• food or a type of food, movies, working out
• Do you need something to get you started for the day?
• coffee, energy drink or even hot tea
• drinking these are not a sin - needing them to function is
• Do you need something to sleep at every night?
• wine, a beer, sleeping aids
• a glass of wine or beer, an occasional sleeping aid is not a sin
• if you need them for more than 3-4 days in a row, there may be a spirit influencing you
• Are you “in hiding?”
• Is most of your free time focused on entertainment, especially when you are facing an unpleasant dilemma?
• are you avoiding interaction with people?
• or certain people, especially those you are close to
• Do you find it hard to worship or spend time with God?
• it feels like a chore

These are only a few more common examples. If situations like these are recurring in your life, the enemy may be “pushing” or “nudging” you into them. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you if these actions are in response to another spirit. Follow the steps above to remove the stronghold of the enemy. Once this is done, you are ready to have His help in healing a wounded soul.

Healing the BrokenHearted

My original intent was to pray a corporate prayer for healing the wounded souls of the Bride. As I began to write this message, the Lord pulled me up short (stopped me). He said, “He wanted to heal the wounds of His Bride.” This is different from “healing all wounded souls right now, all at once in a corporate prayer.”

The more I prayed about it, the clearer it became.

• There are many kinds of wounds in our soul.
• There are actions, as we have described, that may block you from receiving the starting point.
• Some people’s spirits can be “in hiding” which may keep them from connecting to the Holy Spirit.
• It can be quite an emotional experience when being healed of a broken heart - the time in between each step can vary greatly.

A corporate prayer will not be an effective way to help heal wounded souls. For this reason, Agape Christian Fellowship will now allow appointments for Soul Healing once you have completed the 301 course: Receiving Charges. You will need to complete the Court Courses in order:

• 101 - Foundations
• 201 - Remaining Free
• 301 - Receiving Charges

The first two courses will help you prepare for the soul healing appointment. The Agape Courts of Heaven Academy is completely free, It is a self-paced, free online school that contains all the classes and materials you will need. How do you know if you need a soul healing? Some symptoms to look for are:

    1.   Inappropriate emotional responses

a.     emotions which impact your physical body in dreams with a reoccurring theme

b.     too much emotion

                         i.       uncontrollable tears, crying, yelling, hitting or throwing things

c.      too little emotion

                         i.       you have a hard time connecting with Father, Son and Holy Spirit

    2.   Uncontrollable sin

a.     you know your actions are wrong

b.     you genuinely want to stop

c.      you cannot stop sinning

    3.   An inability to worship

If you are experiencing these types of symptoms, you may want to spend time in prayer after completing the soul healing class. You can schedule a visit with us, at that time, if you are unable to hear from the Holy Spirit about what may be causing the issue. 

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